Fellow museum folks,
In accordance with our grant from the S.C. Steve Austin Foundation (AF) we
are required to look for other museums, galleries, historic sites, and other
institutions of informal education to partner with us on an upcoming
project. I sent this posting to a number of lists to get the required widest
possible audience, so please excuse the multiple postings. There is
potential for a good bit of money available for this program, as AF (& it's
corporate counterpart the WWF) has large coffers and they are eager to begin
a new phase of their operations to reach a new audience. It seems like a
good partnership, as far as quasi corporate partnerships go. I have always
thought AF was a worthy project and I urge everyone to enjoy the program
with us.
We are looking for a number of different partners from throughout the United
States. Since much of this program takes place through the internet, partner
institutions need not necessarily be in close proximity to each other. AF
is eager to reach a national audience. So far, the pilot program has worked
well and the formative studies (completed by Alan Sokal and Associates) that
are just now being completed show that the program is reaching the target
audience of (primarily) males between the ages of 13 and 20. As many of you
know this can be a difficult demographic to crack, and I think this program
has real promise. If you are interested please read all of the information
and contact me quickly. We only need a few partners at first. For reasons
that will become obvious, we need an even number, so if you could respond
with an idea or a commitment from a like minded institution, so much the
better.
The AF sponsored program is called "Wrestling With History" and has two
major components:
The "main event" is an innovative use of museum theater combined with the
latest technologies in distance learning. The basic premise of the drama(s)
is conflict. Different characters represent different points of view of a
historical conflict ie North vs. South, Allies v. Axis, the railroad vs.
the canal, or science vs. religion. (there have been some discussions
regarding broadening this to scientific debates as well) Each character
would be sponsored by a specific museum, science center, or historic house
or church, for example in the case of science v. religion (the conflict we
chose for the pilot program) The Mount Washington Observatory sponsored
science and the Old North Church in Boston sponsored religion. In anther
pilot program to be staged later this year, Canterbury Quaker of New
Hampshire and the Boott Cotton Mills in Lowell, Mass. will stage a drama
between craft work and mass production. Then, when the two "combatants"
struggle in a physical, yet highly symbolic, manner they are illustrating
the history of the struggle between these schools of thought or historic
movements. The drama, which can take place in any medium to large
auditorium, theater, or gym, is televised and broadcast over the internet
and traditional television. The drama is written by the museums in
conjunction with WWF writers at WWF expense. Students in classrooms or kids
at home can view the "action" and participate in post-match question and
answer periods via telephone or email that explain the conflict, provide
historical context, and make sure the more complex aspects of the conflict
are covered. (After all, no conflict is a simple matter of two opposing
sides. There are many sides and many issues. These can all be covered.) The
important point is that students are not encouraged to choose a particular
side, but are asked to intellectually defend the side they have chosen and
"root" for their wrestler. They are then asked to practice divergent
thinking and anticipate the next moves and holds (representing arguments and
tactics) each side will attempt in the future.
If the dramas are good enough, it has been suggested that the matches can be
shown on the WWF's regular programs. That's national coverage for a small
museum!!
These bouts are designed to appeal to the target demographic that studies
show respond to short bursts (3-5 minutes the length of the average music
video or prize fight round) of education, entertainment, and sports, and
recall more content when information is presented as gratuitously and
graphically violent discourse. (Formative studies show that attention span
is lengthened and content better remembered when scantily clad round card
girls come on between rounds holding a placard telling the viewers which
year, decade, or century will be represented in the succeeding round) In
short, the drama should resemble a professional wrestling match in form but
a historic docu-drama in content.
The second component consists of activities after the bout is over and/or
before it begins. These materials have yet to be completely created or
piloted, and it is hoped all participants will help produce their own, but
they will be in class activities, museum based programs, the latest in
hyper-directional free-choice learning projects, and various role playing
dramas for presentation in the classroom, museum, the internet (there is a
web site dedicated to mpeg viewing and downloading) or local access cable.
The activities approximate and analyze the popular, and culturally
significant, dialogues of professional wrestlers before and after a fight.
They are designed to provide additional context and drive student directed
learning into acceptable modalities of discourse.
In our Science v. Religion conflict we posted the full account of the famous
debate on evolution in 1860 between Thomas Henry Huxley and Bishop Samuel
Wilberforce on our web site and students were encouraged to create a
pro-wrestling like dialogue from the text. One student who played Huxley
literally brought applause from our focus group when he delivered, wearing
wrestler's tights of course, Huxley's now famous retort to the Bishop's
question concerning his monkey ancestry:
"If then the question is put to me whether I would rather have a miserable
ape for a grandfather or a man highly endowed by nature and possessed of
great means of influence & yet employs these faculties & that influence for
the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion,
I unhesitatingly affirm my preference for the ape."
delivered in at the appropriate volume, with spittle flying from his mouth,
and in authentic wrestler argot. It was definitely a stirring sight, and an
evaluation later conducted determined that the presence of blood on his face
brought content retention up %.75.
There is also an opportunity at this stage to bring WWF wrestlers into the
school to train the students in wrestling technique, coach them on acting,
and give them style tips. It is a great opportunity for the kids to meet
some of there heroes and receive vocational inspiration and training.
Formal evaluations aside, it was quite a stirring sight to walk out of the
school and past the playground after the end of the program, and watch the
students imitate the very moves and holds they had seen in our drama.
Although their emulation of the "Galileo Sleeper Hold" and the "Atomic
Scopes" were not technically perfect, it was clear that they had
internalized much of what they had seen on the TV and computer. And when I
saw one young boy lower his head and charge into the stomach of an
unsuspecting class mate in a great imitation of the "Papal Bull," I knew we
had a good program on our hands.
If you, or your institution, are interested in what could be a lucrative AF
sponsored program, visit the following web site to learn more and fill out
the online form.
www.mountwashington.org/wrestling
enjoy,
Matthew White
Director of Museums
Mount Washington Observatory
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